BIOGRAPHY

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BLESSED WITH A REMARKABLE STAGE-PRESENCE

natural and effortless style of singing

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Tauseef Akhtar was quite literally born with an appreciation for Urdu shairi and ghazals flowing through his veins. Son of the legendary poet Janab Akhtar Azad and brought up under his wise tutelage, Tauseef’s latent talent for singing was further honed in childhood by the late Pandit Govind Prasad Jaipurwaale. He has also received training in the Kirana gharana by Ustad Dilshad Khan Saheb. After Panditji’s demise, Tauseef then became ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh’s ardent disciple. Jagjit not only fostered Tauseef’s love of ghazals, but inculcated a strict discipline in him so far as riyaaz is concerned and also imparted his own inimitable style of stage presence to his young student.

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Tauseef has also composed music and sung for the Hindi film industry, in close collaboration with music directors Nadeem-Shravan. His passion lies in creating incomparable fusion compositions of traditional ghazal singing accompanied by contemporary western musical instruments.